“Queso Grande”

2010

“The Love”

This was the first group that I ever played 100% Zendrum with and it was quite fun. The artist had previously recorded a demo with an old-school, synth-based drum machine, so I tried to emulate that sound as much as I could. The end result was a bit weird as the drums sound both simulataneously dated and fresh to me. All these tracks were taken from a rehearsal with no additional engineering so they’re a bit rough around the edges. [download]

“Anytime”

Super fun song to play on Zendrum once it kicks in. Basically I played the groove on my right hand while my left was all over the toms. [download]

“Reflection”

If I’m remembering correctly this was just a stock kit off of an Alesis DM-Pro. Certainly a dated sound, but it fit the circumstances. [download]

“Journey”

Pretty sure I played this entire ballad with one hand — gotta love the Zendrum 🙂 [download]

“Message In a Bottle”

The one cover that we did. In retrospect it needed far more snare and fills. [download]

“Disappoint You”

Lately I’ve been rediscovering my love of having various percussion items to the left of my hats. Whereas I’ve definitely overused tambourine in my younger days, I sure do like what it adds to this song. [download]

“Lonely Wonderful”

I’m doing more brush work with this group than I think I ever have, total. Also coming to terms with keeping time with my left foot; something that I’ve always had an awkward time of. Sometimes you need to really strip down to basics before you can evolve to the next level, whatever that may be. [download]

“Whisper Not”

“Five Brothers”

“How My Heart Sings”

“The Wood For the Trees”

These are some snippets from an instrumental project I was involved in one summer. The group consisted of mandolin, bass and zendrum, along with sequenced keyboard tracks. Every song was played to a click track which I had incessantly chirping through my wireless IEM. Nearly drove me mad, but was still quite fun. [download]

“Out By the Train Tracks”

“Hwy 141”

“Forgotten Here”

“Alpha Mondo”

2008

“Paradise Lost”

Sample-wise, I really phoned this one in. The drums I used were exactly the same as the ones from “That’s the Spirit” with Hadley Hill (see below), although they seem to match the mood of the song well enough. The doublebass at the end of the heightened sections was a bit sloppy, but I later got better at these. [download]

“Lonely Streets”

“Hostage”

2007

“The Final Nail”

This was our heaviest tune, although it certainly doesn’t start out that way. The beginning consists of just light hihat and cross sticking, but by the end of the song I’m wailing on pretty much every surface I’ve got! [download]

“Underwater”

This is the track we started our sets with. Nothing flashy, just a song designed to grab attention and set the tone for the first part of the set. Drumming-wise things are fairly subdued — main goal with this one is to just hold down the fort. [download]

“Like Water In the Lungs”

This was one of the more complicated songs that we did as far as structure goes. There’s quite a bit happening in here. My playing on this one was constantly in flux as I couldn’t ever seem to decide on a part that I was consistently happy with. [download]

“That’s the Spirit”

Not much to say here except, ‘I gotta have more…. sleigh bell! [download]

2006

“Sainthood”

A pretty straight forward tune. Only odd thing here, at least from my perspective, was the interplay of the drums with the keyboards. There is a recurring synth peal that ends with a sharp crack. It took a lot of concentration for me to nail these since my tracks went down before the keyboards. I really like the simplicity of the eighth note kick drum hits during the chorus. Took a minimal amount of effort on my part, but really picked up those parts without being overbearing. [download]

“Voices In My Head”

I’ve had many people who’ve heard this track swear that that’s a drum machine on there. They seem genuinely shocked when I tell them ‘no, that’s really me’. That’s actually a pretty high compliment since that’s more or less the intended feel for a dance beat like this. It really was dirt simple to pull off though. ‘Four on the floor’ kick, eighths on the hats, snare on two and four with a click track keeping it ultra precise. Most drummers can probably do it in their sleep. The crush rolls on the snare are my favorite part. Definitely required a triggered pad, I don’t think I could pull it off on an acoustic snare and still have the same feel. [download]

“Rio II”

This was meant as an homage to Duran Duran’s classic ‘Rio’. I tried to include bits from the original back into it. The driving 16th notes kinda got lost in the wash, but still add to the tension of the breakdown when they are absent. The flirty double-time feel at the end is another of my old 90s tricks, where I’d often double or even invert the back-beats during bridges. Note that the 4 quarter notes at the beginning are not meant to be part of the final song. These were audible queues used for layering the keyboard tracks. [download]

“Hey Katie”

This early production take features just drums and bass and illustrates the recording process as we approached it. All tracks started out this way, with me playing to a click track and establishing the basic feel of the song with the bassist. All the other instruments and vocals were then added later. This track has me revisiting some of my old tricks. Note the usage of ride pings on the ‘ands’, with the high hat filling in with my left hand. I used to use this trick to excess back in the 90s. [download]

“In One Day”

This track is a little further along. It’s still missing vocals, but the keyboard tracks have been laid down. This highlights a bit more of the minimalist approach I had to take to this project, to keep things from sounding too busy as the other layers are added. Note the use once again of playing on the ‘ands’ — this time by simply barking the hats. With simple tunes, it’s fun to try to sneak in little bits of flare like that. [download]

2000

“Storm”

I really liked the tightness of the drums on this one.. the cross-sticking, the tom flams and the syncopated breakdown in the middle. My splashes make a rare appearence in here as well. There is a false ending followed by an instrumental breakdown. About as classy as we got on this album. [download]

“Technophase”

The original demo for this was done on a drum machine. My instructions were to ‘keep it the same, but make it more organic’. Well, this is what you wind up with. I remember having to concentrate on staying awake when playing this one. Just sitting in the pocket like that always make me zone out. I think you can count the total number of crashes in here on one hand ;). Oh and it fades out at the end because, well, there never was an ending. When we would rehearse it, we’d just sorta stop after a while. I do remember we played this once at an outdoor concert. I don’t recall how we ended it then though. [download]

“Unchained”

The artist I was working for on this album had a strong dislike for ride cymbals and wanted nothing but hats on everything. We butted heads on this constantly, but in the end I’m glad I conceded. This song in particular would have been ruined if I had switched to the ride for the choruses. In the end, sticking to hats-only really helped focus the sound and I’m very happy how it turned out. [download]

1994

“God Strike Me Down”

What a great tune! This one sums up my 90’s era drumming in one neat package. The intro is easily one of my all time favs. I’m sure I could improve on it today, but it’s not too shabby where it is. Other notable points are the hi-hat barking on the accents, the ‘ands’ on the ride bell and the open armed tambourine and tom fills. The back and forth half-time feel is a great device as well. I used that one to excess in an even older project called Mesa that I did with a fella named Joe Hoffman. I don’t have any surviving material from that era though. [download]

“Camping Song”

Darn it all if I can’t remember the original name of this track. ‘The Camping Song’ will have to do for now – I’ve misplaced all my original notes at this point.

This was a really fun song to play, and clearly from my roto-tom, woodblock, tambourine and cowbell days – judging by the weird drum break near the end. [download]

“In the Last Hour”

An exercise in dynamics. We deconstructed all these tunes to play them minimalisticly in coffee shops. That usually meant me using just bass, hats and snare – with brushes or blasticks. Most of the songs didn’t really translate all that well, except for this one. I always like the unplugged version better — wish I had a recording of it :/ [download]

“Ashamed”

Back in the early 90’s I was obsessed with the history of the RMS Titanic and her sister ships. The name of this group was taken from the name of the band leader on that ill-fated maiden voyage. Of course James Cameron came along a few years later and sucked all the coolness outta that name :/